Jackie Marchington, Director of Global Operations at Caudex, outlines the challenges for pharma and medcomms agencies of compliance with copyright law and publishing agreements – and how forward planning can make things easier.

Recorded 14 June 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

ABSTRACT:

While most pharmaceutical companies have policies along the lines of Good Publication Practice (GPP) for handling publications, copyright is often missed in terms of compliance guidance.

Academic authors are used to simply signing copyright transfer agreements for publications, however, authors who are employees of pharmaceutical companies are usually not legally authorised to do so, so it is important to have an authorised signatory process in place. Multiple authorship on corporate-sponsored publications together with ignorance of ‘work made for hire’ requirements can be complicating factors at the post-acceptance stage of publications. Moreover, choosing an open access journal does not tend to make the process easier as though copyright transfer may no longer be required, other legal agreements are involved.

To streamline the publications process and minimise delays, pharmaceutical companies need to build copyright compliance into their publications standard operating procedures (SOPs) and workflows; review vendor author practices to ensure that an appropriate signatory process is in place; designate authorised signatories who understand the publications process – and always read the small print!

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event_140617.html

Jackie’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/marchington_140617_01.pdf

Jackie’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiemarchington/

More about Caudex can be found at http://www.caudex.com

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers, Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]